Vintage and Classic Menswear

NOLA Trip Day Two: Graveyards and Po’Boys

On this second day of NOLA, I was able to experience the full force of the humidity whilst perusing a graveyard and getting some delish’ po’boys.

Humidity calls for linen, since it breathes well. I kept the pants from the previous post and combined with with a simple v-neck sweater and chino suit jacket. It was all very lightweight and was perfectly fine, for the time being. We ended up walking quite a bit, so I sweat through the outfit a lot. Honestly, the only reason I kept my jacket was to hold my wallet and phone. Having heavy items in drape-y pants is super uncomfortable.

Don’t forget that menswear can be functional instead of just aesthetic based. Chino is a cotton fabric breathes easily and is really meant to be casual. You normally see them made into khakis but can be found in suits as well. As such, it is perfect to wear in hot weather. In fact, most of my pants are cotton since I live in a hot place like LA. I made sure to only bring the breathable pieces with me to this humid place.

Like linen, chino cotton wrinkles easily after a lot of movement, which you can definitely see in these pictures. I personally like the wrinkles; it shows how much you wear the suit and adds an air of “worn casualness” with it. Sprezzy all the way, son.

I really wish I could go sockless, but I’m pretty sure the stench and pain from doing so would have been terrible.

The graveyard was pretty educational and fascinating. Our tour guide Michael gave us some historical background on this particular cemetery, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, and some tidbits about the construction of the tombs. Two main facts that stuck with me were that some of these guys were apart of the Woodman of World fraternal society (signified by a tree stump sculpture) and that many tombs had inverted torches engraved or erected on them. This signified a “life extinguished”.

The architecture of these tombs was simply amazing. Some of them haven’t been touched in years while some had restorations in recent months. It was interesting to note the differences, between the old stucco and the new cement coverings.

Another interesting one we noticed was that a tomb had an ancient engraving of the saying “no pain, no gain”. Instead in the 1930’s, this was shown with a cross and crown, thanks to its Catholic roots.

After the cemetery, we walked a few blocks on Magazine Street to a po’boy restaurant called Mahoney’s. I had the hot dog variation, with two bacon wrapped sausages, mayonnaise, lettuce, and sweet tomato relish. It was fantastic and definitely kept my stomach on its edge while we trekked along to Sucré and got some ice cream.

Now I’ve heard the shopping here isn’t all that great (I did check out a custom clothier and FRIEND) but I do really want to check out the vintage/thrifing scene here. One stop in the nearest Buffalo Exchange and I scored: epic 1980s-90s wool tie from Wembley and a cotton four pocket beige vest from J. Crew. Totally worth it.

Thanks for reading! If you guys have any recommendations, please let me know by commenting below! On another note, if you guys like vulgar comedy and need a break from my outfits, feel free to follow me on snapchat! @teenage_gent

I’m a lot different in real life than how I make myself sound on the blog!